The Veil of Darkness
by FallenHero93
Summary: After Endor, the Empire has finally been defeated and the Rebels set out to free the whole galaxy. But a fanatic Imperial officer is thirsty for revenge and will atract others in a secret plan to destroy the Rebels, in a maze of intrigues and treachery.
1. The Final Strike

**THE VEIL OF DARKNESS**

**A STAR WARS FANFIC**

_(Disclaimer: I don't own SW, blah blah blah.__ All copyright goes to George Lucas, that stubborn guy who refuses to make episodes 7,8 and 9! )_

=Author's Notes=

1. I finally made up my mind to write a decent SW fanfic, not like parodies that can be done in minutes. I tried to make it as canon as possible. Still, it might have minor conflicts with SW canon. Please, do signal any mistakes you've spotted.

2. Oh, and I've also added around 10 OCs and 2-3 original planets – but 1. not all of them are important to the major plot and 2. SW does need lots of characters. I tried to invent as much as possible to keep it close to canon, as I said before.

3. By the way, English isn't my native language but I study it in school, so I hope not no make any serious grammar mistakes.

And 4. If you have any ideas, suggestions regarding the plot or the characters, anything, tell me. Now stop reading these stupid things and go to the story!

P.S. This chapter is a prologue, describing the final details of the Battle of Endor and the defeat of the Empire at the hands of the Rebels. Not until the second chapter will the story truly develop!

**Chapter 1**

**The Final Strike**

The Emperor kept sending electric shocks all through Luke Skywalker's already severed body. Fully aware of his superiority towards the weakened Jedi that at this point wasn't even worthy of being named "his opponent", he stopped for a few moments, slowly descending the stairs that extended from beyond his throne. He contemplated the scene in fron of him. Watching the Rebel in agony further fueled his determination to strike him down. It was a pity indeed that Skywalker had refused to accept and understand the true nature of the Force - the Dark Side…

In fact, he was so pitiful he could not even oppose him. His so-called Jedi powers were totally useless against his Force Lightning. And Skywalker had decided to stick to this insignificant light side out of a sheer and stupid loyalty…He was young and inexperienced and had refused to join him – so he had to pay.

And so yet another beam of blue lightning emerged from his fingertips towards the defenseless Rebel. He was now crying for help…That was even more pleasant. The best thing in the world, next to galactic domination, was watching your adversary's reaction as he understood his inevitable death…as he finally knew that any form of opposition would now be useless and that he'll painfully die once and for all…Good.

The lightning now illuminated the whole throne chamber and at this point the smell of ozone from the electric discharge was fairly noticeable. All that was now left for him was to strike him down…

And suddenly he felt a disturbance in the Force. A warning of danger. But it was too late. Ironically enough, the Emperor himself had been the overconfident one…and now, before he could act, Darth Vader lifted him and brought him on the edge of the bottomless pit. Betrayal! How come he had not foreseen this? Traitors! Rebel scum!...

His last thoughts died along with him as Vader threw him down the shaft to his death, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One. Moments after, Luke quickly got back to his feet, realising the need to save his father. He got to him and dragged him along to the ramp of his vehicle, as he was too weak to walk on his own due to the Force lightning's effects.

He was taken aback though when Vader suddenly asked him to take his mask off. He then explained that his own death now was inevitable – and his dying wish was to see his son with this own eyes. It took a few moments for Luke to accept the truth…after which he proceeded. A part of him wanted to see his father's eyes as well.

And Luke was even more surprised to look at his father's face. Indeed, it was pale and scarred after Mustafar and his lack of exposure to the sun afterwards – but it was not that which he had noticed first. He did not notice any trace of hate or anger in his expression, just peace and resignation. He then remembered that particular line in the Jedi code…"There is no emotion, there is peace". So his father had ultimately been redeemed.

=o=

The Rebel ships quickly left its Imperial attackers behind and entered the Death Star's superstructure followed up close by the Millenium Falcon. The TIE fighters, however, were as persistent as they were and continued their chase. After all, not only were their opponents Rebel scum that had to be crushed, but also their target was one of major importance. Under no circumstance were they to be allowed to destroy the Imperial superweapon.

At some point, the group split up in an attempt to divert its attackers – and as the shaft gradually began to narrow down, Lando Calrissian was forced to make more and more careful maneuvers. Fortunately, they soon knew luck was on their side when they arrived at the Death Star's reactor core. He and Wedge Antilles destroyed its core by setting a chain reaction…and then kicked full power to the engines as they ran for their lives. The flames almost got to the Millenium Falcon when Lando got the ship out of the Death Star.

And minutes after the Executor had crashed onto its surface, the mass destruction weapon exploded.

=o=

Back on the surface of Endor, Luke sat quietly watching his father's cremation. Now it was all over. He had finally fulfilled the prophecy and brought balance to the Force. But beyond all that, he had redeemed himself. He had become again Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Knight. And he, Luke, had won his father back. Watching the final ritual further swayed his emotions…_But there is no death, there is the Force._

However, life had to go on, so he found the inner strength and bid his father a final goodbye and headed towards the others. The galaxy was now free of Imperial domination – nevertheless, the hard work had just begun. But for the moment…he just wanted to join in and celebrate.

It was a victory the Rebels would always remember.

It was a defeat the Empire would never forget.


	2. Safe Refuges

_In the previous chapter of "The Veil of Darkness":_

_Darth Vader sacrifices himself to save Luke in the Emperor's throne room._

_The Rebels destroy the Death Star._

_The winners celebrate on Endor the Empire's defeat and the liberation of the galaxy._

(AN: This chapter introduces two of the major characters (OCs as well). By the way, the ranks I used for the Imperial fleet are taken from the Internet. They're a mixture of ranks from the Army and the Fleet, but just take it as it is.)

CHAPTER 2

=Safe Refuges=

The bridge of the Assassin-class corvette _Inferno _fell silent at the sight of the Executor crashing into the Death Star. The very symbol of the Imperial fleet…brought to an early demise by a small Rebel ship.

A single silhouette was sitting silently in front of the viewport, her hands behind her back. The captain of the _Inferno _clenched her fists as she watched the disaster that was going on in front of their eyes. She noticed the silence soon enough, though, and half-turned towards the crewmen:

- What are you staring at? You have an order to obey!

And then, as if she realised she needed to give them an impulse, she continued:

- Intensify firepower towards the nearest Rebel ships. We need to diminish their active forces as quickly as possible.

Her piercing icy blue eyes stared at them as their returned to their jobs. Perhaps the Emperor or Darth Vader were still alive and had a chance to escape. If so, the Empire could still win this battle. As for the men aboard the _Inferno, _they had to and they would stop the advance of the Rebels until it was too la -

And then, out of nowhere, the Death Star itself exploded. This time, there was no room for doubt. The two most important Imperial figures were dead. And the Empire was gone with them.

She then angrily smashed her right fist into the command console, losing her hard-gained composure.

- No! This is not possible! Not now…Rebel scum!

After a few moments, an inferior officer rose from his seat and walked to her, trying his best to contain his inner fear. The woman rarely showed outbursts of temper, but when she did, nobody dared approach her. Still…the present situation required immediate action.

- Major…

He didn't even get to say a second word. She was now filled with anger and wasn't going to spare anyone from knowing it.

- Keep your mouth shut, Lieutenant. It's all your fault. Yours and all those men in the Fleet. If a woman had been on command, nothing of all this would have happened. Those damned Rebels, with…with a handful of ships, have defeated all the Imperial firepower…Incompetents!

- Major Ketorr, please. What course of action are we going to take?

The poor man sighed, aware of his progress. He had now been able to complete a whole sentence without the woman's wrath interfering. Now all the had to do was wait for her answer – which he hoped would come rather quick, or else the Rebels could realise the huge number of demoralised officers on warships and would turn their attention towards them.

Fortunately, he got his answer in moments.

- Very well, then. How much power do we still have?

The man froze. Surely she wasn't going to launch an all-out attack…? He knew she was perfectly capable of that. But after all, he still had to give her an answer. He turned towards one of the corporals and asked:

- Vedron, available power?

- Right away, Lieutenant. It's…roughly 42% of our full capacity.

- Good, the woman replied. She pressed a few buttons on the command console and a holographic map of the area around Endor appeared.

- There. A Mon Cal ship. We're going to attack them at any costs and…

The lieutenant was on the verge of protesting, knowing full well an all-out attack at this point in the war was a suicidal mission, when a familiar voice echoed from the console. It was a prioritary message, so it didn't have to wait for approval from the ship's captain, being thus automatically transmited:

- _Attention, this is Captain Pellaeon of the Chimaera. All ships: retreat. This is an order. Repeat: all ships, retreat. This is an order._

Major Ketorr took a deep breath after hearing the order. It had been as precise as possible. Retreat…She had never contemplated that option. And leaving also meant acknowledging the victory of the Rebels. Perhaps even further allowing them to destroy the Empire. She weighed the possibilities: she had two options ahead of her. Either refuse the order and keep fighting to death or accept the defeat and run away. Ironically enough, as much as she wanted to see the Rebellion crushed…she also wanted to live on. There was another advantage to that, too…If she kept on fighting, there was a big chance they'd all die or be captured, but if she retreated, she could keep on planning for revenge. Yes, indeed, revenge was even sweeter than dying in battle.

- Well then, she said, suddenly raising her voice. Calculate hyperspace coordinates and then we're out of here.

And after a few minutes, the stars collapsed yet again into starlines. She had been right to trust her intuition and follow orders. All the other warships who had stubbornly refused and had kept on fighting had suffered miserable defeats, been captured by the Rebel Alliance and executed for crimes of war.

=o=

The Ahsko Gon spaceport was relatively empty at evenings. This was a big advantage for the _Empire's Pride _as it attempted a decent landing. It had been so badly built that its crew often wondered how come it hadn't fallen apart yet.

The one in charge of the ship, a young female lieutenant, let a sigh of relief as the _Pride_ finally touched ground. As for her part, it was a miracle the landing hadn't caused that piece of junk to disintegrate. What an ironic name…Although, if one took into account the present state of the Empire, the Corellian Corvette could as well be worthy of being called its pride.

The main door opened with a hiss. She was the first one to descend the ramp, followed by the 15 crew members. All of them were ensigns, recently graduated from the Imperial Academy, save for two corporals. And she, the only lieutenant, was the captain of the wreck. She had recently been given a leading position on the _Empire's Pride_ by her superiors, probably to avoid having a woman aboard a larger warship. So she was stuck there, with no foreseeable chance of promotion, a bunch of disobedient young cadets for a crew…and, most likely, with no Empire to serve.

Normally, any captain would've stayed behind and asked an inferior officer to take care of the smaller details. But she didn't trust any of the others, so she took the task upon herself. Almost as soon as she left the docking bay, a tall, overveight man came to their assistance. As soon as he saw a woman in a military outfit, his lips formed a smirk of disgust. Of course, he tried not to show it too bad – after all, he didn't want to risk losing a client.

- What can I help you with today, madam? he said in a fake polite tone.

- Refuel this ship. On behalf of the Empire, she said, showing her Imperial officer ID. The Emperor had issued a law stating that ships of the Fleet should be refueled for free in all Imperial spaceports and it had proven pretty useful until then.

But the man seemed to refuse. Normally, he'd done it as quickly as possible. But this was no usual situation…and since the woman also requested a free refuel, he felt free to strike back, letting go of that tiresome politeness:

- What Empire, lady? The Empire's dead. I 'eard it on the HoloNet. Everybody in 'he galaxy knows that wrinkled frog-face and his 'enchman got blasted at Endor. What d'ya have to say, uh? On what authority d'ya ask me for free fuel, now?

The lieutenant quickly drew her blaster and pointed it at him.

- Is this authority good enough? she said, her facial expression as stern as ever.

Watching his shocked face, she went on:

- Now, do what I said or I'll blast you to stardust. Move!

The man didn't need any further explanations. He approached the ship and started the refuel procedure. She sighed. Luckily for her, she knew how to intimidate others. But she understood that soon enough, it'd take more than a blaster threat to survive. Now, with the deaths of the Emperor and Vader, lots of planets would join the Rebellion – and no one would be there to stop them. People and aliens would become increasingly hostile to Imperials, wherever they'd happen to be. And this only meant trouble.

She mentally cursed the Rebels. They were the only ones responsible for the galactic chaos. Refusing authority, attacking those who didn't, rebelling against the law just because, of course, it was much more fun to disrespect the law than obey it. They fooled others with their fake ideals of justice and freedom and tricked them into joining the Rebel Alliance. And so, a single idea had lead to the destruction of a whole government, one that had brought order and peace to infinitely many worlds. Her only comforting thought was that, as bad as it was, their rule would soon end, most likely by self-dessolution. And then, the Empire would return from its hiding place.

Or at least that was what she thought and hoped for. Indoctrinated from a young age, she had no idea about the true purpose of the Rebel Alliance or the ways the Empire had used to maintain that order she almost worshipped.

=o=

After a few hours of wandering in and about the spaceport of Kashlon, in the Mid Rim, she returned to the _Empire's Pride_ to have a decent sleep. That, if she could sleep, after all the events that had occurred in such a short time.

As soon as she entered the ship, she noticed a very strange aspect. In fact, she hadn't noticed anything at all – and that was more than weird. 15 crewmen and all of them silent? She then proceeded to look for them. Well, she could totally rule out a surprise party.

So she found they were nowehere to look. Not even at their stations (although that was not too unexpected from them), not even in their cabins. Had they been gone out for so long? She pondered for a few moments, then decided to use her instinct.

- Well, well, she said to herself. If I were an ensign on the _Empire's Pride_ after a most disastruous battle, where would I go?

She then remembered there was a place she'd forgotten to check. There still was the bar. Relatively small in size, but large enough to accommodate the crew, it generally functioned as a cantina inside the ship.

Minutes later, she found it and slowly opened the door, half expecting to find the place empty as well. But she could not believe her eyes when she saw what was going on inside. Every single one of her crew was almost dead drunk. Besides betrayal, the thing she hated most in the galaxy was vices.

Some of them were already dozing off in the weirdest positions, even on the floor, while others kept pouring alcohol in their glasses. They probably were just vaguely aware of their superior's presence in there. She felt her face turning red . For the first time, she felt ashamed of them. She then decided to take attitude:

- What is this? What has happened in here?

She had to wait a few good moments for someone to finally answer.

- Ah, c'mon, L'tenant…the 'mpire's…go…gone…'nd we're just drowning our so'ows…

- Yeah, c'me here, 'ave a drink wi'us, another one added in a barely intelligible voice.

This was far from pleasing her, though. Her voice grew even colder and more authoritarian:

- What kind of attitude is this? You're serving in the Imperial Fleet! Then behave as such!

At that time, though, they were either too drunk or tired to hear or care about what she had just said. In fact, they seemed to completely ignore her, concentrating their whole attention on the Alderaanian wine in front of them. But that had been the last drop. The lieutenant then decided to take action.

She headed towards the ones that were still drinking and grabbed the bottles from their hands. Luckily for her, they were so inebriated that they didn't even react. Only one of them, noticing that his source of happiness was slowly drifting away, reached forward to take his bottle back, but as she lifted her arm to prevent him from doing so, he fell off his chair. He stayed there, probably not having enough energy or will to lift himself up, keeping a longing gaze on the liquor. But she wasn't willing to give up. With almost no interference from her inebriated crew, she gathered all the bottles in the bar and locked them inside two cupboards that were high enough.

Having finished her job, she took a few seconds to contemplate the scene again. Had they been at least partly sober, she'd have ordered them to head back to their rooms. But seeing the situation as it was, she decided the only thing left for her was to leave the room and head towards her own cabin. She'd have a talk with them the following morning and she'd make sure every single one of them heard what she had to say. It was time to instill some discipline in them.

_In the __next chapter of "The Veil of Darkness":_

_A paid assassin is released from prison on Mon Calamari._

_Leia persuades Han and Chewbacca to go on a diplomatic mission to a planet who'd recently asked for affiliation with the Rebel Alliance. (Of course, this will mean trouble later on...*evil smirk*)_

_QUOTE:_

_R2-D2: 000011100101001! (AN: I thought it was better to actually render R2's speech in binary)_

_C-3PO: You have a bad feeling about this, too?_


End file.
